Indian military plane with 29 on board missing in Bay of Bengal

An Indian air force plane carrying 29 people went missing on Friday on a flight to a remote island chain in the Bay of Bengal, the defense ministry said.

The Russian-made AN-32 was on its way to Port Blair, the capital of India's Andaman and Nicobar chain of islands, from the southeast city of Chennai when it disappeared from radar.

There were 21 military personnel on board including six crew. The other people on board were civilians, some of them family members of soldiers deployed on the islands.

"It was a routine courier mission to Port Blair, the plane was airborne at 8:30 a.m. and due to land at 11:30," air force spokesman Wing Commander Anupam Banerjee said.

India has been beefing up its military presence in the Andamans in recent years.

The islands are near the Malacca Straits, one of the world's busiest shipping lanes which link the Indian Ocean to the South China Sea and East Asia.

The defense ministry said four surveillance planes, 12 ships and a submarine were searching for the aircraft in one of India's largest search and rescue operations in recent years.

The plane went missing about 300 km (186 mile) east of Chennai, the ministry said in a statement. The Andamans are about 750 nautical miles from mainland India.

The defense ministry said the submarine had been deployed to locate transmissions from an emergency locator beacon on the AN-32 aircraft. The plane is a workhorse of the air force, chosen for its ability to operate from short runways.

One thing though is that we should not be having aerial blind spots within our own backyard. Arabian Sea is still understandable, but Bay of Bengal should be within our control as we have landmass in three sides.

I say there should be permanent rigs(similar to oil rigs) or dedicated ships with radars between mainland and Andaman.

One thing though is that we should not be having aerial blind spots within our own backyard. Arabian Sea is still understandable, but Bay of Bengal should be within our control as we have landmass in three sides.

I say there should be permanent rigs(similar to oil rigs) or dedicated ships with radars between mainland and Andaman.

So this was an Antonov-32. Hmmm. IIRC, recently India had some of its Antonov-32s refurbished in Ukraine, where they temporarily went missing. Given the condition of Ukraine run by a bunch of corrupt oligarchs, I wonder whether this one was one of those refurbished with poor workmanship or parts, and thus caused an accident?

One thing though is that we should not be having aerial blind spots within our own backyard. Arabian Sea is still understandable, but Bay of Bengal should be within our control as we have landmass in three sides.

I say there should be permanent rigs(similar to oil rigs) or dedicated ships with radars between mainland and Andaman.

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This is being done but the problem is that Andaman islands are very far away and we would require radar if very high power.

This is being done but the problem is that Andaman islands are very far away and we would require radar if very high power.

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With three Swordfish LRTR one placed at Chennai, one at port blair and one which is already there at ITR we can cover entire Bay of Bengal. However this will come with cost and threat perception especially from air is such, spending may not find suitable justification.

Is it just me or there seems to be feeling that either there is Bermuda triangle type zone evolving in this sector OR there is some sort of hanky panky going on.
If we just think, MH 370 apparently disappeared in this area, Another coast guard Dornier, and now this An-32... very very strange, I guess we need to have this area flooded with sensors so that we can know whats going aroumd. A plane going missing and we have no clue whats happening in that area.. unacceptable to be such ignorant as to whats burning behind our ass

I completely understand bad weather and vast ocean to map out but still that's our territory our backyard and if we can not monitor that how are we going to find subs from China or Pakistan ????? That's a big concern how are we monitoring or wether are we doing this at all.

Is it just me or there seems to be feeling that either there is Bermuda triangle type zone evolving in this sector OR there is some sort of hanky panky going on.
If we just think, MH 370 apparently disappeared in this area, Another coast guard Dornier, and now this An-32... very very strange, I guess we need to have this area flooded with sensors so that we can know whats going aroumd. A plane going missing and we have no clue whats happening in that area.. unacceptable to be such ignorant as to whats burning behind our ass

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there is no Bermuda triangle, its maintenance triangle, this plane had three serious structural flaws in last month still they went